Graphical element detection using a combined series and delayed parallel execution unified target technique, a default graphical element detection technique, or both

ABSTRACT

Graphical element detection using a combined series and delayed parallel execution unified target technique that potentially uses a plurality of graphical element detection techniques, performs default user interface (UI) element detection technique configuration at the application and/or UI type level, or both, is disclosed. The unified target merges multiple techniques of identifying and automating UI elements into a single cohesive approach. A unified target descriptor chains together multiple types of UI descriptors in series, uses them in parallel, or uses at least one technique first for a period of time and then runs at least one other technique in parallel or alternatively if the first technique does not find a match within the time period.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of, and claims priority to, U.S.patent application Ser. No. 17/014,171 filed on Sep. 8, 2020. Thesubject matter thereof is hereby incorporated herein by reference in itsentirety.

FIELD

The present invention generally relates to graphical element detection,and more specifically, to graphical element detection using a combinedseries and delayed parallel execution unified target technique,performing default UI element detection technique configuration at theapplication and/or UI type level, or both.

BACKGROUND

For robotic process automation (RPA) in a UI, graphical elementdetection may be performed using selectors, computer vision (CV), oroptical character recognition (OCR) for each UI action. However, thesetechniques are typically applied individually and are not optimal forall scenarios. Accordingly, an improved approach may be beneficial.

SUMMARY

Certain embodiments of the present invention may provide solutions tothe problems and needs in the art that have not yet been fullyidentified, appreciated, or solved by current graphical elementdetection technologies. For example, some embodiments of the presentinvention pertain to graphical element detection using a combined seriesand delayed parallel execution unified target technique. Certainembodiments pertain to default UI element detection techniqueconfiguration at the application and/or UI type level. Thisconfiguration may then be used to detect UI elements at runtime.

In an embodiment, a computer-implemented method for detecting graphicalelements in a UI includes receiving, by a designer application, aselection of an activity in an RPA workflow to be configured to performgraphical element detection using a unified target technique. Thecomputer-implemented method also includes receiving, by the designerapplication, modifications to the unified target technique for theactivity and configuring the activity based on the modifications, by thedesigner application. The unified target technique is a combined seriesand delayed parallel execution unified target technique that isconfigured to employ a plurality of graphical element detectiontechniques.

In another embodiment, a computer program is embodied on anon-transitory computer-readable medium. The computer program isconfigured to cause at least one processor to analyze a UI at runtime toidentify UI element attributes and compare the UI element attributes toUI descriptor attributes for an activity of an RPA workflow using one ormore initial graphical element detection techniques. When a match is notfound using the one or more initial graphical element detectiontechniques during a first time period, the computer program isconfigured to cause the at least one processor to execute one or moreadditional graphical element detection techniques in parallel with theone or more initial graphical element detection techniques.

In yet another embodiment, a computer program is embodied on anon-transitory computer-readable medium. The computer program isconfigured to cause at least one processor to analyze a UI at runtime toidentify UI element attributes and compare the UI element attributes toUI descriptor attributes for an activity of an RPA workflow using one ormore initial graphical element detection techniques. When a match is notfound using the one or more initial graphical element detectiontechniques during a first time period, the computer program isconfigured to cause the at least one processor to execute one or moreadditional graphical element detection techniques instead of the one ormore initial graphical element detection techniques.

In still another embodiment, a computer-implemented method for detectinggraphical elements in a UI includes receiving, by an RPA designerapplication, a selection of an application or a UI type. Thecomputer-implemented method also includes receiving and saving a defaulttargeting method settings configuration, by the RPA designerapplication. The computer-implemented method further includes receivingan indication of a screen to be automated, by the RPA designerapplication. The screen pertains to the selected application or UI type.Additionally, the computer-implemented method includes automaticallypreconfiguring the default targeting method settings for the selectedapplication or UI type, by the RPA designer application.

In another embodiment, a computer program is embodied on anon-transitory computer-readable medium. The computer program isconfigured to cause at least one processor to automatically preconfiguredefault targeting method settings for a selected application or UI type.The computer program is also configured to cause the at least oneprocessor to receive modifications to the default targeting methodsettings for the application or the UI type and configure the defaulttargeting method settings in accordance with the modifications. Thecomputer program is further configured to cause the at least oneprocessor to configure one or more activities in an RPA workflow usingthe default targeting method settings for the application or UI type.

In yet another embodiment, a computer program is embodied on anon-transitory computer-readable medium. The computer program isconfigured to cause at least one processor to automatically preconfiguredefault targeting method settings for an application or UI type, by adesigner application and configure one or more activities in an RPAworkflow using the default targeting method settings for the applicationor UI type. The computer program is also configured to cause the atleast one processor to generate an RPA robot to implement the RPAworkflow including the one or more configured activities.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order that the advantages of certain embodiments of the inventionwill be readily understood, a more particular description of theinvention briefly described above will be rendered by reference tospecific embodiments that are illustrated in the appended drawings.While it should be understood that these drawings depict only typicalembodiments of the invention and are not therefore to be considered tobe limiting of its scope, the invention will be described and explainedwith additional specificity and detail through the use of theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is an architectural diagram illustrating a robotic processautomation (RPA) system, according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 2 is an architectural diagram illustrating a deployed RPA system,according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an architectural diagram illustrating the relationship betweena designer, activities, and drivers, according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 4 is an architectural diagram illustrating an RPA system, accordingto an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an architectural diagram illustrating a computing systemconfigured to perform graphical element detection using a combinedseries and delayed parallel execution unified target technique and/orone or more default targeting methods configured by application or UItype, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 6A-G illustrate a unified target configuration interface for anRPA designer application, according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIGS. 7A-C illustrate a targeting method configuration interface forconfiguring targeting methods at the application and/or UI type level,according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a process for configuring unifiedtarget functionality for activities in an RPA workflow, according to anembodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 9A and 9B are flowcharts illustrating a process for graphicalelement detection using a combined series and delayed parallel executionunified target technique, according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIGS. 10A and 10B are flowcharts illustrating a design time portion anda runtime portion, respectively, of a process for configuring defaultgraphical element detection techniques and performing graphical elementdetection at an application and/or UI type level, according to anembodiment of the present invention.

Unless otherwise indicated, similar reference characters denotecorresponding features consistently throughout the attached drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Some embodiments pertain to graphical element detection using a combinedseries and delayed parallel execution unified target technique thatpotentially uses a plurality of graphical element detection techniques(e.g., selectors, CV, OCR, etc.). “Graphical elements” and “UI elements”are used interchangeably herein. At their core, UI descriptors identifythe UI elements (e.g., text fields, buttons, labels, menus, checkboxes,etc.). Some types of UI descriptors include, but are not limited to,selectors, CV descriptors, image matching descriptors, OCR descriptors,unified target descriptors that may utilize multiple different types ofUI descriptors in series or in parallel, etc. UI descriptors may be usedto compare attributes for a given UI descriptor with attributes of UIelements found at runtime in the UI.

In some embodiments, UI descriptors store the attributes of therespective UI element and its parents, e.g., in an Extensible MarkupLanguage (XML) fragment. At runtime, the attributes for the UI elementsfound in the UI can be searched for matches with attributes for arespective RPA workflow activity, and if an exact match or a “closeenough” match is found within a matching threshold, the UI element maybe identified and interacted with accordingly. The attributes mayinclude text-based identifiers (IDs), classes, roles, and the like. ForCV, the attributes may include the type of the target element and therelation to one or more anchor elements that may be used in amulti-anchor matching approach. For OCR, the attributes may include textin the form of a stored string, for example, and text found via OCR towhich the stored string was fuzzy matched during execution. Any suitableattributes and graphical element detection techniques may be usedwithout deviating from the scope of the invention.

As used herein, a “screen” is an image of an application UI or a portionof the application UI at a certain point in time. In some embodiments,UI elements and screens may be further differentiated into specifictypes of UI elements (e.g., buttons, checkboxes, text fields, etc.) andscreens (e.g., top windows, modal windows, popup windows, etc.).

Some embodiments use UI descriptors that store the attributes of a UIelement and its parents in an XML fragment. In modern computing systems,the operating system typically represents each user interface as ahierarchical data structure that is commonly referred to as a UI tree.An example UI tree may include a document object model (DOM) underlyinga webpage rendered by a web browser application.

Selectors are a type to UI descriptor that may be used to detect UIelements in some embodiments. A selector has the following structure insome embodiments:

-   -   <node_1/><node_2/> . . . <node_N/>

The last node represents the GUI element of interest, and all previousnodes represent the parents of that element. <node_1> is usuallyreferred to as a root node, and represents the top window of theapplication.

Each node may have one or more attributes that assist with correctidentification of a specific level of the selected application. Eachnode has the following format in some embodiments:

-   -   <ui_system attr_name_1=′attr_value_1′ . . .        attr_name_N=′attr_value_N′/>

Every attribute may have an assigned value, and attributes with constantvalues may be selected. This is because changes to the value of anattribute each time the application is started may lead to the selectornot being able to correctly identify the associated element.

A UI descriptor is a set of instructions for finding a UI element. UIdescriptors in some embodiments are an encapsulated data/struct formatthat includes UI element selector(s), anchor selector(s), CVdescriptor(s), OCR descriptor(s), unified target descriptor(s) combiningtwo or more types of UI descriptors, a screen image capture (context),an element image capture, other metadata (e.g., the application andapplication version), a combination thereof, etc. The encapsulateddata/struct format may be extensible with future updates to the platformand is not limited to the above definition. Any suitable UI descriptorfor identifying a UI element on a screen may be used without deviatingfrom the scope of the invention. UI descriptors may be extracted fromactivities in an RPA workflow and added to a structured schema thatgroups the UI descriptors by UI applications, screens, and UI elements.

The UI descriptors may work with a unified target that encompassesmultiple or all UI element detection mechanisms through which imagedetection and definition are performed in some embodiments. The unifiedtarget may merge multiple techniques of identifying and automating UIelements into a single cohesive approach. A unified target descriptorchains together multiple types of UI descriptors in series, uses them inparallel, or uses at least one technique (e.g., a selector) first for aperiod of time and then runs at least one other technique in parallel oralternatively if the first technique does not find a match within thetime period. In some embodiments, a unified target descriptor mayfunction like a finite state machine (FSM), where in a first context, afirst UI descriptor mechanism is applied, in a second context, a secondUI descriptor is applied, etc. The unified target may prioritizeselector-based and driver-based UI detection mechanisms and fall back onCV, image matching, and/or other mechanisms to find a graphical elementif the first two mechanisms are not successful in some embodiments.

In some embodiments, fuzzy matching may be employed, where one or moreattributes should match with a certain accuracy (e.g., a 70% match, an80% match, a 99% match, etc.), within a certain range, using stringmetrics (e.g., a Levenshtein distance, a Hamming distance, aJaro-Winkler distance, etc.), a combination thereof, etc. One ofordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the similarity measuremay quantify an amount of similarity, as well as an amount of mismatchbetween two attribute values. Furthermore, in various embodiments, thesimilarity threshold may represent a maximum amount of mismatch or aminimum amount of similarity required for a match.

Depending on the chosen manner of computing the similarity measure, thesimilarity threshold can have various interpretations. For instance, thesimilarity threshold may indicate a maximum count of characters that candiffer between the two strings or a fractional degree of mismatchcalculated as a proportion of the total count of characters (e.g.,combined string length). In some embodiments, the similarity thresholdmay be re-scaled to a predetermined interval, such as between 0 and 1,between 0 and 100, between 7 and 34, etc. In one nonlimiting example, arelatively high similarity threshold (e.g., close to 1 or 100%)indicates a requirement for an almost exact match, i.e., the value ofthe fuzzy attribute in the runtime target is only allowed to depart veryslightly from the value of the respective attribute in the design timetarget. In contrast, when the similarity threshold is relatively low(e.g., close to 0), almost any values of the respective fuzzy attributeare considered as matching.

In certain embodiments, the matching tolerance may differ on aper-attribute basis. For instance, an exact match may be required forone or more attributes (e.g., it may be desired to find a certain exactname) and fuzzy matching may be performed for one or more otherattributes. The number and/or type of attributes used from eachgraphical element detection technique may be custom-specified by the RPAdeveloper in some embodiments.

In some embodiments, attributes may be stored as attribute-value pairsand/or attribute-value-tolerance pairs (e.g., fuzzy matching).Attribute-value pairs may indicate a name and a type of UI elementrepresented by the respective node in some embodiments. However, oneskilled in the art will appreciate that there may be multiple ways torepresent a location of a specific node within a UI tree other than alist of attribute-value pairs without deviating from the scope of theinvention.

These attribute-value pairs and/or attribute-value-tolerance pairs maybe stored in a tag in some embodiments, and each tag may include asequence of characters with the sequence book-ended byimplementation-specific delimiters (e.g., beginning with “<” and endingwith “/>”). Attribute-value pairs may indicate a name and a type of UIelement represented by the respective node in some embodiments. However,one skilled in the art will appreciate that there may be multiple waysto represent a location of a specific node within a UI tree other than alist of attribute-value pairs without deviating from the scope of theinvention.

To enable a successful and ideally unambiguous identification by an RPArobot, some embodiments represent each UI element using an element IDcharacterizing the respective UI element. The element ID in someembodiments indicates a location of a target node within a UI tree,where the target node represents the respective UI element. Forinstance, the element ID may identify a target node/UI element as amember of a selected subset of nodes. The selected subset of nodes mayform a genealogy, i.e., a line of descent through the UI tree where eachnode is either an ancestor or a descendant of another node.

In some embodiments, the element ID includes an ordered sequence of nodeindicators, the sequence tracing a genealogical path through the UItree, and the path ending in the respective target node/UI element. Eachnode indicator may represent a member of an object hierarchy of therespective UI and its position within the sequence consistent with therespective hierarchy. For instance, each member of the sequence mayrepresent a descendant (e.g., a child node) of the previous member, andmay have the following member as a descendant (e.g., a child node). Inone HyperText Markup Language (HTML) example, an element ID representingan individual form field may indicate that the respective form field isa child of an HTML form, which in turn is a child of a specific sectionof a webpage, etc. The genealogy does not need to be complete in someembodiments.

Some embodiments may use one or more multi-anchor matching attributes.Anchors are other UI elements that can be used to assist in uniquelyidentifying a target UI element. For instance, if multiple text fieldsare included in a UI, searching for a text field alone is insufficientto uniquely identify a given text field. Accordingly, some embodimentslook for additional information in order to uniquely identify a given UIelement. Using the text field example, a text field for entering a firstname may appear to the right of the label “First Name”. This first namelabel may be set as an “anchor” to help to uniquely identify the textfield, which is the “target”.

Various positional and/or geometric associations between the target andthe anchor may be used in some embodiments, potentially within one ormore tolerances, to uniquely identify the target. For instance, thecenter of bounding boxes for the anchor and the target may be used todefine a line segment. This line segment could then be required to havea certain length within a tolerance and/or slope within a tolerance touniquely identify the target using the target/anchor pair. However, anydesired position of the location associated with the target and/oranchors may be used in some embodiments without deviating from the scopeof the invention. For instance, the point for drawing line segments maybe in the center, upper left corner, upper right corner, lower leftcorner, lower right corner, any other location on the border of thebounding box, any location within the bounding box, a location outsideof the bounding box as identified in relation to the bounding boxproperties, etc. In certain embodiments, the target and one or moreanchors may have different locations within or outside of their boundingboxes that are used for geometric matching.

Per the above, a single anchor may not always be sufficient to uniquelyidentify a target element on a screen with a certain confidence. Forinstance, consider a web form where two text field for entering a firstname appear to the right of respective labels “First Name” in differentlocations on the screen. In this example, one or more additional anchorsmay be useful to uniquely identify a given target. The geometricproperties between the anchors and the target (e.g., line segmentlengths, angles, and/or relative locations with tolerances) may be usedto uniquely identify the target. The user may be required to continue toadd anchors until a match strength for the target exceeds the threshold.

As used herein, the terms “user” and “developer” are usedinterchangeably. The user/developer may or may not have programmingand/or technical knowledge. For instance, in some embodiments, theuser/developer may create RPA workflows by configuring activities in theRPA workflow without manual coding. In certain embodiments, this may bedone by clicking and dragging and dropping various features, forexample.

In some embodiments, default UI element detection techniques (alsocalled “targeting methods” herein) may be configured at the applicationand/or UI type level. UI element detection techniques that work well fora given application and/or UI type may not work as well for anotherapplication and/or UI type. For instance, techniques that work well fora Java® window may not work as well for a web browser window.Accordingly, the user may configure the RPA robot to use the mosteffective technique(s) for the given application and/or UI type.

Certain embodiments may be employed for robotic process automation(RPA). FIG. 1 is an architectural diagram illustrating an RPA system100, according to an embodiment of the present invention. RPA system 100includes a designer 110 that allows a developer to design and implementworkflows. Designer 110 may provide a solution for applicationintegration, as well as automating third-party applications,administrative Information Technology (IT) tasks, and business ITprocesses. Designer 110 may facilitate development of an automationproject, which is a graphical representation of a business process.Simply put, designer 110 facilitates the development and deployment ofworkflows and robots.

The automation project enables automation of rule-based processes bygiving the developer control of the execution order and the relationshipbetween a custom set of steps developed in a workflow, defined herein as“activities.” One commercial example of an embodiment of designer 110 isUiPath Studio™. Each activity may include an action, such as clicking abutton, reading a file, writing to a log panel, etc. In someembodiments, workflows may be nested or embedded.

Some types of workflows may include, but are not limited to, sequences,flowcharts, FSMs, and/or global exception handlers. Sequences may beparticularly suitable for linear processes, enabling flow from oneactivity to another without cluttering a workflow. Flowcharts may beparticularly suitable to more complex business logic, enablingintegration of decisions and connection of activities in a more diversemanner through multiple branching logic operators. FSMs may beparticularly suitable for large workflows. FSMs may use a finite numberof states in their execution, which are triggered by a condition (i.e.,transition) or an activity. Global exception handlers may beparticularly suitable for determining workflow behavior whenencountering an execution error and for debugging processes.

Once a workflow is developed in designer 110, execution of businessprocesses is orchestrated by conductor 120, which orchestrates one ormore robots 130 that execute the workflows developed in designer 110.One commercial example of an embodiment of conductor 120 is UiPathOrchestrator™. Conductor 120 facilitates management of the creation,monitoring, and deployment of resources in an environment. Conductor 120may act as an integration point, or one of the aggregation points, withthird-party solutions and applications.

Conductor 120 may manage a fleet of robots 130, connecting and executingrobots 130 from a centralized point. Types of robots 130 that may bemanaged include, but are not limited to, attended robots 132, unattendedrobots 134, development robots (similar to unattended robots 134, butused for development and testing purposes), and nonproduction robots(similar to attended robots 132, but used for development and testingpurposes). Attended robots 132 may be triggered by user events or bescheduled to automatically happen, and operate alongside a human on thesame computing system. Attended robots 132 may be used with conductor120 for a centralized process deployment and logging medium. Attendedrobots 132 may help the human user accomplish various tasks, and may betriggered by user events. In some embodiments, processes cannot bestarted from conductor 120 on this type of robot and/or they cannot rununder a locked screen. In certain embodiments, attended robots 132 canonly be started from a robot tray or from a command prompt. Attendedrobots 132 should run under human supervision in some embodiments.

Unattended robots 134 run unattended in virtual environments or onphysical machines, and can automate many processes. Unattended robots134 may be responsible for remote execution, monitoring, scheduling, andproviding support for work queues. Debugging for all robot types may berun from designer 110 in some embodiments. Both attended and unattendedrobots may automate various systems and applications including, but notlimited to, mainframes, web applications, VMs, enterprise applications(e.g., those produced by SAP®, SalesForce®, Oracle®, etc.), andcomputing system applications (e.g., desktop and laptop applications,mobile device applications, wearable computer applications, etc.).

Conductor 120 may have various capabilities including, but not limitedto, provisioning, deployment, versioning, configuration, queueing,monitoring, logging, and/or providing interconnectivity. Provisioningmay include creating and maintenance of connections between robots 130and conductor 120 (e.g., a web application). Deployment may includeassuring the correct delivery of package versions to assigned robots 130for execution. Versioning may include management of unique instances ofsome process or configuration in some embodiments. Configuration mayinclude maintenance and delivery of robot environments and processconfigurations. Queueing may include providing management of queues andqueue items. Monitoring may include keeping track of robotidentification data and maintaining user permissions. Logging mayinclude storing and indexing logs to a database (e.g., an SQL database)and/or another storage mechanism (e.g., ElasticSearch®, which providesthe ability to store and quickly query large datasets). Conductor 120may provide interconnectivity by acting as the centralized point ofcommunication for third-party solutions and/or applications.

Robots 130 are execution agents that run workflows built in designer110. One commercial example of some embodiments of robot(s) 130 isUiPath Robots™ In some embodiments, robots 130 install the MicrosoftWindows® Service Control Manager (SCM)-managed service by default. As aresult, such robots 130 can open interactive Windows® sessions under thelocal system account, and have the rights of a Windows® service.

In some embodiments, robots 130 can be installed in a user mode. Forsuch robots 130, this means they have the same rights as the user underwhich a given robot 130 has been installed. This feature may also beavailable for High Density (HD) robots, which ensure full utilization ofeach machine at its maximum potential. In some embodiments, any type ofrobot 130 may be configured in an HD environment.

Robots 130 in some embodiments are split into several components, eachbeing dedicated to a particular automation task. The robot components insome embodiments include, but are not limited to, SCM-managed robotservices, user mode robot services, executors, agents, and command line.SCM-managed robot services manage and monitor Windows® sessions and actas a proxy between conductor 120 and the execution hosts (i.e., thecomputing systems on which robots 130 are executed). These services aretrusted with and manage the credentials for robots 130. A consoleapplication is launched by the SCM under the local system.

User mode robot services in some embodiments manage and monitor Windows®sessions and act as a proxy between conductor 120 and the executionhosts. User mode robot services may be trusted with and manage thecredentials for robots 130. A Windows® application may automatically belaunched if the SCM-managed robot service is not installed.

Executors may run given jobs under a Windows® session (i.e., they mayexecute workflows. Executors may be aware of per-monitor dots per inch(DPI) settings. Agents may be Windows® Presentation Foundation (WPF)applications that display the available jobs in the system tray window.Agents may be a client of the service. Agents may request to start orstop jobs and change settings. The command line is a client of theservice. The command line is a console application that can request tostart jobs and waits for their output.

Having components of robots 130 split as explained above helpsdevelopers, support users, and computing systems more easily run,identify, and track what each component is executing. Special behaviorsmay be configured per component this way, such as setting up differentfirewall rules for the executor and the service. The executor may alwaysbe aware of DPI settings per monitor in some embodiments. As a result,workflows may be executed at any DPI, regardless of the configuration ofthe computing system on which they were created. Projects from designer110 may also be independent of browser zoom level in some embodiments.For applications that are DPI-unaware or intentionally marked asunaware, DPI may be disabled in some embodiments.

FIG. 2 is an architectural diagram illustrating a deployed RPA system200, according to an embodiment of the present invention. In someembodiments, RPA system 200 may be, or may be a part of, RPA system 100of FIG. 1. It should be noted that the client side, the server side, orboth, may include any desired number of computing systems withoutdeviating from the scope of the invention. On the client side, a robotapplication 210 includes executors 212, an agent 214, and a designer216. However, in some embodiments, designer 216 may not be running oncomputing system 210. Executors 212 are running processes. Severalbusiness projects may run simultaneously, as shown in FIG. 2. Agent 214(e.g., a Windows® service) is the single point of contact for allexecutors 212 in this embodiment. All messages in this embodiment arelogged into conductor 230, which processes them further via databaseserver 240, indexer server 250, or both. As discussed above with respectto FIG. 1, executors 212 may be robot components.

In some embodiments, a robot represents an association between a machinename and a username. The robot may manage multiple executors at the sametime. On computing systems that support multiple interactive sessionsrunning simultaneously (e.g., Windows® Server 2012), multiple robots maybe running at the same time, each in a separate Windows® session using aunique username. This is referred to as HD robots above.

Agent 214 is also responsible for sending the status of the robot (e.g.,periodically sending a “heartbeat” message indicating that the robot isstill functioning) and downloading the required version of the packageto be executed. The communication between agent 214 and conductor 230 isalways initiated by agent 214 in some embodiments. In the notificationscenario, agent 214 may open a WebSocket channel that is later used byconductor 230 to send commands to the robot (e.g., start, stop, etc.).

On the server side, a presentation layer (web application 232, Open DataProtocol (OData) Representative State Transfer (REST) ApplicationProgramming Interface (API) endpoints 234, and notification andmonitoring 236), a service layer (API implementation/business logic238), and a persistence layer (database server 240 and indexer server250) are included. Conductor 230 includes web application 232, ODataREST API endpoints 234, notification and monitoring 236, and APIimplementation/business logic 238. In some embodiments, most actionsthat a user performs in the interface of conductor 230 (e.g., viabrowser 220) are performed by calling various APIs. Such actions mayinclude, but are not limited to, starting jobs on robots,adding/removing data in queues, scheduling jobs to run unattended, etc.without deviating from the scope of the invention. Web application 232is the visual layer of the server platform. In this embodiment, webapplication 232 uses Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and JavaScript(JS). However, any desired markup languages, script languages, or anyother formats may be used without deviating from the scope of theinvention. The user interacts with web pages from web application 232via browser 220 in this embodiment in order to perform various actionsto control conductor 230. For instance, the user may create robotgroups, assign packages to the robots, analyze logs per robot and/or perprocess, start and stop robots, etc.

In addition to web application 232, conductor 230 also includes servicelayer that exposes OData REST API endpoints 234. However, otherendpoints may be included without deviating from the scope of theinvention. The REST API is consumed by both web application 232 andagent 214. Agent 214 is the supervisor of one or more robots on theclient computer in this embodiment.

The REST API in this embodiment covers configuration, logging,monitoring, and queueing functionality. The configuration endpoints maybe used to define and configure application users, permissions, robots,assets, releases, and environments in some embodiments. Logging RESTendpoints may be used to log different information, such as errors,explicit messages sent by the robots, and other environment-specificinformation, for instance. Deployment REST endpoints may be used by therobots to query the package version that should be executed if the startjob command is used in conductor 230. Queueing REST endpoints may beresponsible for queues and queue item management, such as adding data toa queue, obtaining a transaction from the queue, setting the status of atransaction, etc.

Monitoring REST endpoints may monitor web application 232 and agent 214.Notification and monitoring API 236 may be REST endpoints that are usedfor registering agent 214, delivering configuration settings to agent214, and for sending/receiving notifications from the server and agent214. Notification and monitoring API 236 may also use WebSocketcommunication in some embodiments.

The persistence layer includes a pair of servers in thisembodiment—database server 240 (e.g., a SQL server) and indexer server250. Database server 240 in this embodiment stores the configurations ofthe robots, robot groups, associated processes, users, roles, schedules,etc. This information is managed through web application 232 in someembodiments. Database server 240 may manages queues and queue items. Insome embodiments, database server 240 may store messages logged by therobots (in addition to or in lieu of indexer server 250).

Indexer server 250, which is optional in some embodiments, stores andindexes the information logged by the robots. In certain embodiments,indexer server 250 may be disabled through configuration settings. Insome embodiments, indexer server 250 uses ElasticSearch®, which is anopen source project full-text search engine. Messages logged by robots(e.g., using activities like log message or write line) may be sentthrough the logging REST endpoint(s) to indexer server 250, where theyare indexed for future utilization.

FIG. 3 is an architectural diagram illustrating the relationship 300between a designer 310, activities 320, 330, and drivers 340, accordingto an embodiment of the present invention. Per the above, a developeruses designer 310 to develop workflows that are executed by robots.Workflows may include user-defined activities 320 and UI automationactivities 330. Some embodiments are able to identify non-textual visualcomponents in an image, which is called computer vision (CV) herein.Some CV activities pertaining to such components may include, but arenot limited to, click, type, get text, hover, element exists, refreshscope, highlight, etc. Click in some embodiments identifies an elementusing CV, optical character recognition (OCR), fuzzy text matching, andmulti-anchor, for example, and clicks it. Type may identify an elementusing the above and types in the element. Get text may identify thelocation of specific text and scan it using OCR. Hover may identify anelement and hover over it. Element exists may check whether an elementexists on the screen using the techniques described above. In someembodiments, there may be hundreds or even thousands of activities thatcan be implemented in designer 310. However, any number and/or type ofactivities may be available without deviating from the scope of theinvention.

UI automation activities 330 are a subset of special, lower levelactivities that are written in lower level code (e.g., CV activities)and facilitate interactions with applications through the UI layer. Incertain embodiments, UI automation activities 300 may simulate” userinput through window messages or the like, for example. UI automationactivities 330 facilitate these interactions via drivers 340 that allowthe robot to interact with the desired software. For instance, drivers340 may include OS drivers 342, browser drivers 344, VM drivers 346,enterprise application drivers 348, etc.

Drivers 340 may interact with the OS at a low level looking for hooks,monitoring for keys, etc. They may facilitate integration with Chrome®,IE®, Citrix®, SAP®, etc. For instance, the “click” activity performs thesame role in these different applications via drivers 340.

FIG. 4 is an architectural diagram illustrating an RPA system 400,according to an embodiment of the present invention. In someembodiments, RPA system 400 may be or include RPA systems 100 and/or 200of FIGS. 1 and/or 2. RPA system 400 includes multiple client computingsystems 410 running robots. Computing systems 410 are able tocommunicate with a conductor computing system 420 via a web applicationrunning thereon. Conductor computing system 420, in turn, is able tocommunicate with a database server 430 and an optional indexer server440.

With respect to FIGS. 1 and 3, it should be noted that while a webapplication is used in these embodiments, any suitable client and/orserver software may be used without deviating from the scope of theinvention. For instance, the conductor may run a server-side applicationthat communicates with non-web-based client software applications on theclient computing systems.

FIG. 5 is an architectural diagram illustrating a computing system 500configured to perform graphical element detection using a combinedseries and delayed parallel execution unified target technique and/orone or more default targeting methods configured by application or UItype, according to an embodiment of the present invention. In someembodiments, computing system 500 may be one or more of the computingsystems depicted and/or described herein. Computing system 500 includesa bus 505 or other communication mechanism for communicatinginformation, and processor(s) 510 coupled to bus 505 for processinginformation. Processor(s) 510 may be any type of general or specificpurpose processor, including a Central Processing Unit (CPU), anApplication Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field ProgrammableGate Array (FPGA), a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), multiple instancesthereof, and/or any combination thereof. Processor(s) 510 may also havemultiple processing cores, and at least some of the cores may beconfigured to perform specific functions. Multi-parallel processing maybe used in some embodiments. In certain embodiments, at least one ofprocessor(s) 510 may be a neuromorphic circuit that includes processingelements that mimic biological neurons. In some embodiments,neuromorphic circuits may not require the typical components of a VonNeumann computing architecture.

Computing system 500 further includes a memory 515 for storinginformation and instructions to be executed by processor(s) 510. Memory515 can be comprised of any combination of Random Access Memory (RAM),Read Only Memory (ROM), flash memory, cache, static storage such as amagnetic or optical disk, or any other types of non-transitorycomputer-readable media or combinations thereof. Non-transitorycomputer-readable media may be any available media that can be accessedby processor(s) 510 and may include volatile media, non-volatile media,or both. The media may also be removable, non-removable, or both.

Additionally, computing system 500 includes a communication device 520,such as a transceiver, to provide access to a communications network viaa wireless and/or wired connection. In some embodiments, communicationdevice 520 may be configured to use Frequency Division Multiple Access(FDMA), Single Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA), Time Division Multiple Access(TDMA), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Orthogonal FrequencyDivision Multiplexing (OFDM), Orthogonal Frequency Division MultipleAccess (OFDMA), Global System for Mobile (GSM) communications, GeneralPacket Radio Service (GPRS), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System(UMTS), cdma2000, Wideband CDMA (W-CDMA), High-Speed Downlink PacketAccess (HSDPA), High-Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA), High-SpeedPacket Access (HSPA), Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE Advanced (LTE-A),802.11x, Wi-Fi, Zigbee, Ultra-WideBand (UWB), 802.16x, 802.15, HomeNode-B (HnB), Bluetooth, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), InfraredData Association (IrDA), Near-Field Communications (NFC), fifthgeneration (5G), New Radio (NR), any combination thereof, and/or anyother currently existing or future-implemented communications standardand/or protocol without deviating from the scope of the invention. Insome embodiments, communication device 520 may include one or moreantennas that are singular, arrayed, phased, switched, beamforming,beamsteering, a combination thereof, and or any other antennaconfiguration without deviating from the scope of the invention.

Processor(s) 510 are further coupled via bus 505 to a display 525, suchas a plasma display, a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), a Light EmittingDiode (LED) display, a Field Emission Display (FED), an Organic LightEmitting Diode (OLED) display, a flexible OLED display, a flexiblesubstrate display, a projection display, a 4K display, a high definitiondisplay, a Retina® display, an In-Plane Switching (IPS) display, or anyother suitable display for displaying information to a user. Display 525may be configured as a touch (haptic) display, a three dimensional (3D)touch display, a multi-input touch display, a multi-touch display, etc.using resistive, capacitive, surface-acoustic wave (SAW) capacitive,infrared, optical imaging, dispersive signal technology, acoustic pulserecognition, frustrated total internal reflection, etc. Any suitabledisplay device and haptic I/O may be used without deviating from thescope of the invention.

A keyboard 530 and a cursor control device 535, such as a computermouse, a touchpad, etc., are further coupled to bus 505 to enable a userto interface with computing system 500. However, in certain embodiments,a physical keyboard and mouse may not be present, and the user mayinteract with the device solely through display 525 and/or a touchpad(not shown). Any type and combination of input devices may be used as amatter of design choice. In certain embodiments, no physical inputdevice and/or display is present. For instance, the user may interactwith computing system 500 remotely via another computing system incommunication therewith, or computing system 500 may operateautonomously.

Memory 515 stores software modules that provide functionality whenexecuted by processor(s) 510. The modules include an operating system540 for computing system 500. The modules further include a combinedseries-and-parallel unified target/default targeting method module 545that is configured to perform all or part of the processes describedherein or derivatives thereof. Computing system 500 may include one ormore additional functional modules 550 that include additionalfunctionality.

One skilled in the art will appreciate that a “system” could be embodiedas a server, an embedded computing system, a personal computer, aconsole, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a cell phone, a tabletcomputing device, a quantum computing system, or any other suitablecomputing device, or combination of devices without deviating from thescope of the invention. Presenting the above-described functions asbeing performed by a “system” is not intended to limit the scope of thepresent invention in any way, but is intended to provide one example ofthe many embodiments of the present invention. Indeed, methods, systems,and apparatuses disclosed herein may be implemented in localized anddistributed forms consistent with computing technology, including cloudcomputing systems. The computing system could be part of or otherwiseaccessible by a local area network (LAN), a mobile communicationsnetwork, a satellite communications network, the Internet, a public orprivate cloud, a hybrid cloud, a server farm, any combination thereof,etc. Any localized or distributed architecture may be used withoutdeviating from the scope of the invention.

It should be noted that some of the system features described in thisspecification have been presented as modules, in order to moreparticularly emphasize their implementation independence. For example, amodule may be implemented as a hardware circuit comprising custom verylarge scale integration (VLSI) circuits or gate arrays, off-the-shelfsemiconductors such as logic chips, transistors, or other discretecomponents. A module may also be implemented in programmable hardwaredevices such as field programmable gate arrays, programmable arraylogic, programmable logic devices, graphics processing units, or thelike.

A module may also be at least partially implemented in software forexecution by various types of processors. An identified unit ofexecutable code may, for instance, include one or more physical orlogical blocks of computer instructions that may, for instance, beorganized as an object, procedure, or function. Nevertheless, theexecutables of an identified module need not be physically locatedtogether, but may include disparate instructions stored in differentlocations that, when joined logically together, comprise the module andachieve the stated purpose for the module. Further, modules may bestored on a computer-readable medium, which may be, for instance, a harddisk drive, flash device, RAM, tape, and/or any other suchnon-transitory computer-readable medium used to store data withoutdeviating from the scope of the invention.

Indeed, a module of executable code could be a single instruction, ormany instructions, and may even be distributed over several differentcode segments, among different programs, and across several memorydevices. Similarly, operational data may be identified and illustratedherein within modules, and may be embodied in any suitable form andorganized within any suitable type of data structure. The operationaldata may be collected as a single data set, or may be distributed overdifferent locations including over different storage devices, and mayexist, at least partially, merely as electronic signals on a system ornetwork.

FIGS. 6A-G illustrate a unified target configuration interface for anRPA designer application 600, according to an embodiment of the presentinvention. In this embodiment, the RPA developer can custom-configurethe unified target functionality for activities in the RPA workflow. RPAdesigner application 600 includes an RPA workflow development pane 610with a click activity 612. RPA designer application 600 also includes aunified target configuration pane 620. When a user clicks an activitythat interacts with a graphical element in a UI, unified targetconfiguration pane 620 shows unified target options for that activity.

As shown in FIG. 6A, a serial execution selector 630 allows the RPAdeveloper to choose whether the unified target technique for activity612 will execute in series individually or in parallel with at least onestage of delayed parallel execution. If serial execution is selected,the order of execution of the techniques can be specified using adropdown 632. See FIG. 6B. Selected technique(s) 634 appear afterselection and a timeout for each technique may be specified via atimeout field 636. See FIG. 6C.

If delayed parallel execution is desired, the value of serial executionselector 630 may be set to “No”, and the RPA developer can then choosewhether one or more initial techniques will be used via initialtechniques selector 640. See FIG. 6D. If initial technique selector 640is set to “No”, the graphical element detection techniques for unifiedtarget may be executed in parallel. However, if initial techniquesselector 640 is set to “Yes”, a dropdown 642 for selecting initialtechniques appears. See FIG. 6E. However, in some embodiments, one ormore initial techniques are automatically executed and may not beconfigurable by the RPA developer. For instance, a selector-basedapproach may be faster than the others and may be tried initially. Incertain embodiments, one or more default initial techniques may beshown, and the RPA developer may change these (e.g., by adding newtechniques, removing default techniques, etc.). In some embodiments, theRPA developer cannot configure the initial technique(s), but canconfigure the delayed parallel technique(s).

After an initial technique 644 is selected, a parallel techniquesdropdown 646 appears with the remaining techniques listed. See FIG. 6F.In some embodiments, the types of graphical element detection techniquesare chosen automatically based on the action implemented by the activity(e.g., click, get text, hover, etc.), the graphical element type (e.g.,button, text field, etc.), and/or the specific graphical element that isindicated by the RPA developer (i.e., which element the user picked onthe screen and what other elements are present in the application). Withrespect to the specific graphical element, if the RPA developer clicksone OK button, for example, but there are two OK buttons on the screen,some attributes may be automatically added to distinguish between thetwo otherwise identical OK buttons. When using a UI tree, for instance,the UI tree is usually built in such a way that when an RPA developerindicates a graphical element on the screen, at least some of theattributes in the UI tree are different for that graphical element thanfor other graphical elements.

The RPA developer may still add more initial techniques via add link645, or the RPA developer may remove previously selected initialtechniques. In some embodiments, if the RPA developer selects “No” forinitial techniques selector 640, parallel techniques dropdown 646 stillappears and the RPA developer can custom-select which techniques toexecute in parallel. After a parallel technique 647 is selected, the RPAdeveloper may still add more parallel techniques via add link 648, orthe RPA developer may remove previously selected parallel techniques.See FIG. 6G. A delay for how long to wait to execute the paralleltechnique(s) after execution of the initial technique(s) begins may bespecified via a delay field 649. In some embodiments where amulti-anchor technique is used to identify a target and one or moreanchors, the unified target settings may be custom-configured for thetarget and each anchor, or the same settings may be applied to thetarget and the anchor(s).

In some embodiments, multiple delay periods may be used. For instance,an initial technique may be used for one second, and if a match is notfound, one or more other technique(s) may be used in parallel with theinitial technique, and if no match is found during the second period,still other technique(s) may be applied in parallel, etc. Any number ofdelay periods and/or techniques during each delay period may be usedwithout deviating from the scope of the invention.

In some embodiments, mutually exclusive serial stages may be employed.For instance, an initial technique may be used for one second, and if amatch is not found, one or more other technique(s) may be used insteadof the initial technique, and if no match is found during the secondperiod, still other technique(s) may be applied instead of the initialtechnique and the second period technique(s), etc. In this manner,techniques that do not appear to be successful may be stopped,potentially reducing resource requirements.

FIG. 7A illustrates a collapsed targeting method configuration interface700 for configuring at the application and/or UI type level, accordingto an embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the usercan configure targeting methods for web browsers, Java®, SAP®, aMicrosoft® UI Automation (UTA) desktop, an Active Accessibility (AA)desktop, and a Microsoft® Win32 desktop. Each of these applicationsand/or display types may be individually configured by the user.

Turning to FIG. 7B, the user has configured default targeting methodsfor SAP® using SAP® targeting method tab 710. Since SAP® currently hasstrong and reliable selectors, the run value for full selector 712 isset to “True”. The run values for fuzzy selector 714, image selector 716and enable anchors 718 (i.e., to enable identification of the targetusing target/anchor functionality) are set to “False”.

However, this technique may not be effective for all applications and/orUI types. For instance, selectors may not work well for many modern webbrowsers since values for the attributes tend to change dynamically.Turning to FIG. 7C, the user has configured default targeting methodsfor web browsers using web targeting method tab 720. Input mode 722 isset to “Simulate” via a dropdown menu 723. This is a web-specificsetting, and other application and/or UI type-specific settings for webapplications and/or other applications/UI types may be included withoutdeviating from the scope of the invention. When applications areautomated in some embodiments, different mechanisms for interacting withan application (e.g., providing mouse clicks, key presses, etc.) may beused. “Simulate” simulates the input that the web browser would receivefrom the system were a user to perform a similar interaction.

Because using a full selector is not accurate for many web browsers, therun value for full selector setting 724 is set to “False”. On the otherhand, the run values for fuzzy selector 725, image selector 726, andenable anchors 727 are set to “True”. This is the opposite configurationas in SAP® targeting method tab 710 in FIG. 7B.

By configuring targeting methods on a per-application and/or per-UI typebasis, a user does not need to reconfigure every graphical element whenhe or she indicates the element on the screen. For instance, if the userindicates a text field in a web browser, the targeting methods for thattext field will be as the user preconfigured them without the userhaving to go in each time and set the run value for the full selector to“False”, set the run value for fuzzy selector to “True”, etc. However,it should be noted that the user may modify these default values in someembodiments if there is a specific UI element that may be detected moreaccurately using a different targeting method configuration than thedefault configuration.

It should be noted that other targeting method settings are possible.For instance, CV, OCR, or a combination thereof may be used in someembodiments. Indeed, any suitable graphical element detectiontechnique(s) may be used without deviating from the scope of theinvention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a process 800 for configuring unifiedtarget functionality for activities in an RPA workflow, according to anembodiment of the present invention. In some embodiments, process 800may be performed by RPA designer application 600 of FIGS. 6A-G. Theprocess begins with receiving a selection of an activity in an RPAworkflow at 810 to be configured to perform graphical element detectionusing unified target. In some embodiments, the unified targetfunctionality is automatically preconfigured at 820. In certainembodiments, this preconfiguring may be based on the types of graphicalelement detection techniques, the graphical element type, and/or thespecific graphical element that is indicated by the RPA developer.

The RPA designer application may receive modifications to the unifiedtarget functionality from the RPA developer at 830 in order tocustom-configure the unified target functionality for the activity. TheRPA designer application then configures the activity based on theunified target configuration at 840. If more activities are to beconfigured, the RPA developer may select another activity and theprocess returns to step 810. Once the desired activit(ies) areconfigured, the RPA designer application generates an RPA robot toimplement an RPA workflow including the configured activit(ies) at 850.The process then ends or proceeds to FIG. 9A.

FIGS. 9A and 9B are flowcharts illustrating a process 900 for graphicalelement detection using a combined series and delayed parallel executionunified target technique, according to an embodiment of the presentinvention. In some embodiments, process 900 may be implemented atruntime by an RPA robot created via RPA designer application 600 ofFIGS. 6A-G. The process begins with analyzing a UI (e.g., a screenshot,an image of an application window, etc.) to identify UI elementattributes at 910. The UI element attributes may include, but are notlimited to, images, text, relationships between graphical elements, ahierarchical representation of the graphical elements in the UI, etc.The identification may be performed via CV, OCR, API calls, analysis oftext files (e.g., HTML, XML, etc.), a combination thereof, etc.

After the UI has been analyzed, the UI element attributes are analyzedfor the activity using unified target at 920. Turning to FIG. 9B, one ormore initial graphical element detection techniques are executed(potentially in parallel) at 922. If a match is found in a first timeperiod at 924 for the initial technique(s) (e.g., within a tenth of asecond, one second, ten seconds, etc.), the results from this match areselected at 926.

If a match is not found in the initial technique time period at 924, oneor more additional graphical element detection techniques are executedin parallel at 928. If a match is found in a second time period at 929,the results from the first technique to find a match out of all of theinitial techniques and subsequent parallel techniques are then selectedat 926 and the process proceeds to step 930. In some embodiments,finding a match for the graphical element may involve finding a matchfor the graphical element itself as a target and for its anchor(s), andthe first technique to find a match for each may be selected for thatrespective target/anchor. If a match was not found in the second timeperiod at 929, the process also proceeds to step 930. In someembodiments, multiple stages of delayed parallel execution areperformed. In certain embodiments, different techniques are executed ateach stage and previous techniques are stopped.

If a matching UI element is found via unified target at 930, the actionassociated with the activity involving the UI element is performed at940 (e.g., clicking a button, entering text, interacting with a menu,etc.). If there are more activities at 950, the process proceeds to step920 for the next activity. If, however, the UI element matching theattributes of the graphical element detection techniques is not found at930, an exception is thrown or the user is asked how he or she wouldlike to proceed (e.g., whether to continue execution) at 960 and theprocess ends.

FIGS. 10A and 10B are flowcharts illustrating a design time portion anda runtime portion, respectively, of a process 1000 for configuringgraphical element detection techniques and performing graphical elementdetection at an application and/or UI type level, according to anembodiment of the present invention. In some embodiments, the designtime portion of process 1000 may be performed by targeting methodconfiguration interface 700 of FIGS. 7A-C. The process begins withreceiving a selection of an application or a UI type for defaulttargeting method configuration at 1005. A developer then configures thedefault targeting method settings (e.g., for a web browser, the Win32desktop, etc.), and this default configuration is received and saved at1010. The default configuration may be saved in a UI object repositoryin some embodiments where it can be accessed by multiple or many users.The user may then select another application or a UI type for defaulttargeting method configuration, if desired.

The same developer or a different developer then indicates a screen in aUI, and the screen indication is received at 1015 (e.g., by an RPAdesigner application such as UiPath Studio™). In other words, differentinstances of the RPA designer application may be used to configure thedefault targeting method settings and to subsequently modify the defaulttargeting method settings. Indeed, these instances may not be on thesame computing system in some embodiments. The default targeting methodsettings are then preconfigured for the detected application or UI typeassociated with the screen at 1020. The RPA designer application mayreceive modifications to the default targeting method settings andconfigure the settings accordingly at 1025. For instance, a user maychoose which targeting methods he or she wants to use for a screen wherethe default techniques are not performing as well as desired. Forexample, perhaps a certain screen has substantially different visualfeatures than other screens in the application or desktop.

After the targeting method settings have been set by default or modifiedfrom the default configuration, the user develops an RPA workflow wherethe activities are configured using these targeting method settings at1030. In some embodiments, the user may still modify the defaulttargeting method settings while designing the RPA workflow. After theuser has completed the RPA workflow, the RPA designer applicationgenerates an RPA robot to implement the RPA workflow including theconfigured activit(ies) at 1035. The process then ends or proceeds toFIG. 10B.

Turning to FIG. 10B, a UI (e.g., a screenshot, an image of anapplication window, etc.) is analyzed to identify UI element attributesat 1040. The UI element attributes may include, but are not limited to,images, text, relationships between graphical elements, a hierarchicalrepresentation of the graphical elements in the UI, etc. Theidentification may be performed via CV, OCR, API calls, analysis of textfiles (e.g., HTML, XML, etc.), a combination thereof, etc.

After the UI has been analyzed, the UI element attributes are analyzedfor the activity using the default targeting method configuration(s) at1045, unless overridden for a given UI element by the user during designtime development. If a matching UI element is found using the targetingmethod settings at 1050, the action associated with the activityinvolving the UI element is performed at 1055 (e.g., clicking a button,entering text, interacting with a menu, etc.). If there are moreactivities at 1060, the process proceeds to step 1045 for the nextactivity. If, however, the UI element is not found using the configuredtargeting method(s) at 1050, an exception is thrown or the user is askedhow he or she would like to proceed (e.g., whether to continueexecution) at 1065 and the process ends.

The process steps performed in FIGS. 8-10B may be performed by acomputer program, encoding instructions for the processor(s) to performat least part of the process(es) described in FIGS. 8-10B in accordancewith embodiments of the present invention. The computer program may beembodied on a non-transitory computer-readable medium. Thecomputer-readable medium may be, but is not limited to, a hard diskdrive, a flash device, RAM, a tape, and/or any other such medium orcombination of media used to store data. The computer program mayinclude encoded instructions for controlling processor(s) of a computingsystem (e.g., processor(s) 510 of computing system 500 of FIG. 5) toimplement all or part of the process steps described in FIGS. 8-10B,which may also be stored on the computer-readable medium.

The computer program can be implemented in hardware, software, or ahybrid implementation. The computer program can be composed of modulesthat are in operative communication with one another, and which aredesigned to pass information or instructions to display. The computerprogram can be configured to operate on a general purpose computer, anASIC, or any other suitable device.

It will be readily understood that the components of various embodimentsof the present invention, as generally described and illustrated in thefigures herein, may be arranged and designed in a wide variety ofdifferent configurations. Thus, the detailed description of theembodiments of the present invention, as represented in the attachedfigures, is not intended to limit the scope of the invention as claimed,but is merely representative of selected embodiments of the invention.

The features, structures, or characteristics of the invention describedthroughout this specification may be combined in any suitable manner inone or more embodiments. For example, reference throughout thisspecification to “certain embodiments,” “some embodiments,” or similarlanguage means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristicdescribed in connection with the embodiment is included in at least oneembodiment of the present invention. Thus, appearances of the phrases“in certain embodiments,” “in some embodiment,” “in other embodiments,”or similar language throughout this specification do not necessarily allrefer to the same group of embodiments and the described features,structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner inone or more embodiments.

It should be noted that reference throughout this specification tofeatures, advantages, or similar language does not imply that all of thefeatures and advantages that may be realized with the present inventionshould be or are in any single embodiment of the invention. Rather,language referring to the features and advantages is understood to meanthat a specific feature, advantage, or characteristic described inconnection with an embodiment is included in at least one embodiment ofthe present invention. Thus, discussion of the features and advantages,and similar language, throughout this specification may, but do notnecessarily, refer to the same embodiment.

Furthermore, the described features, advantages, and characteristics ofthe invention may be combined in any suitable manner in one or moreembodiments. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize that theinvention can be practiced without one or more of the specific featuresor advantages of a particular embodiment. In other instances, additionalfeatures and advantages may be recognized in certain embodiments thatmay not be present in all embodiments of the invention.

One having ordinary skill in the art will readily understand that theinvention as discussed above may be practiced with steps in a differentorder, and/or with hardware elements in configurations which aredifferent than those which are disclosed. Therefore, although theinvention has been described based upon these preferred embodiments, itwould be apparent to those of skill in the art that certainmodifications, variations, and alternative constructions would beapparent, while remaining within the spirit and scope of the invention.In order to determine the metes and bounds of the invention, therefore,reference should be made to the appended claims.

1. A computer-implemented method for detecting graphical elements in auser interface (UI), comprising: receiving, by a designer application, aselection of an activity in a robotic process automation (RPA) workflowto be configured to perform graphical element detection using a unifiedtarget technique; receiving, by the designer application, modificationsto the unified target technique for the activity; and configuring theactivity based on the modifications, by the designer application,wherein the unified target technique is a combined series and delayedparallel execution unified target technique that is configured to employa plurality of graphical element detection techniques.
 2. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:automatically configuring one or more of the graphical element detectiontechniques for the unified target technique, by the designerapplication.
 3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein theautomatic configuration is performed by the designer application basedon an action implemented by the activity, a type of the target graphicalelement, a presence of one or more other graphical elements in the UI,or a combination thereof.
 4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1,wherein the process of claim 1 is repeated for at least one additionalactivity.
 5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, furthercomprising: generating an RPA robot configured to implement theconfigured activity, by the designer application.
 6. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 5, further comprising: analyzing aUI at runtime, by the RPA robot, to identify UI element attributes;comparing the UI element attributes to UI descriptor attributes for theactivity, by the RPA robot, using one or more initial graphical elementdetection techniques; and when a match is not found using the one ormore initial graphical element detection techniques during a first timeperiod: executing, by the RPA robot, one or more additional graphicalelement detection techniques in parallel with the one or more initialgraphical element detection techniques.
 7. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 6, wherein when a match is not found using the one ormore initial graphical element detection techniques and the one or moreadditional graphical element detection techniques during a second timeperiod, the method further comprises: executing, by the RPA robot, oneor more supplemental graphical element detection techniques in parallelwith the one or more initial graphical element detection techniques andthe one or more additional graphical element detection techniques. 8.The computer-implemented method of claim 6, further comprising:analyzing a UI at runtime, by the RPA robot, to identify UI elementattributes; comparing the UI element attributes to UI descriptorattributes for the activity, by the RPA robot, using one or more initialgraphical element detection techniques; and when a match is not foundusing the one or more initial graphical element detection techniquesduring a first time period: executing, by the RPA robot, one or moreadditional graphical element detection techniques instead of the one ormore initial graphical element detection techniques.
 9. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein when a match is notfound using the one or more additional graphical element detectiontechniques during a second time period, the method further comprises:executing, by the RPA robot, one or more supplemental graphical elementdetection techniques instead of the one or more initial graphicalelement detection techniques and the one or more additional graphicalelement detection techniques.
 10. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 6, wherein when a match is found, the method further comprises:taking an action associated with the activity involving the UI element,by the RPA robot.
 11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1,wherein the plurality of graphical element detection techniques comprisetwo or more of a selector technique, a computer vision (CV) technique,an image matching technique, and an optical character (OCR) technique.12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:displaying, by the designer application, an RPA workflow developmentpane and a unified target configuration pane, wherein the RPA workflowdevelopment pane comprises a visual representation of the RPA workflow,and the unified target configuration pane facilitates configuration ofunified target properties for the RPA workflow.
 13. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein when the activity inthe RPA workflow development pane is selected, the method furthercomprises: displaying unified target options for the activity in theunified target configuration pane, by the designer application.
 14. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the unified targetconfiguration pane comprises a serial execution selector designatingwhether the unified target technique for an activity of the RPA workflowwill execute in series individually or in parallel with at least onestage of delayed parallel execution.
 15. The computer-implemented methodof claim 14, wherein when serial execution is selected via the serialexecution selector, the method further comprises: displaying aninterface to select an order of execution of the plurality of graphicalelement detection techniques, by the designer application; receiving aselection of the order of the execution of the plurality of graphicalelement detection techniques, by the designer application; andperforming the configuration of the activity based on the selected orderof the execution of the plurality of graphical element detectiontechniques, by the designer application.
 16. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 12, wherein the unified target configuration panefacilitates selection of graphical element detection techniques executedin parallel.
 17. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, whereinthe unified target configuration pane comprises an initial techniqueselector that allows selection of an initial graphical element detectiontechnique.
 18. The computer-implemented method of claim 17, wherein theunified target configuration pane facilitates selection of graphicalelement detection techniques executed in parallel after the initialgraphical element detection technique and a delay for the parallelexecution after the initial graphical element detection technique isexecuted.
 19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing acomputer program for detecting graphical elements in a user interface(UI), the computer program configured to cause at least one processorto: display a robotic process automation (RPA) workflow development panecomprising a visual representation of an RPA workflow and display aunified target configuration pane; receive a selection of an activity inthe RPA workflow to be configured to perform graphical element detectionusing a unified target technique; receive modifications to the unifiedtarget technique for the activity; and configure the activity based onthe modifications, wherein the unified target configuration panefacilitates configuration of unified target properties for the RPAworkflow.
 20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19,wherein the unified target technique is a combined series and delayedparallel execution unified target technique that is configured to employa plurality of graphical element detection techniques.
 21. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein when theactivity in the RPA workflow development pane is selected, the computerprogram is further configured to cause the at least one processor to:display unified target options for the activity in the unified targetconfiguration pane.
 22. The non-transitory computer-readable medium ofclaim 19, wherein the unified target configuration pane comprises aserial execution selector designating whether the unified targettechnique for an activity of the RPA workflow will execute in seriesindividually or in parallel with at least one stage of delayed parallelexecution.
 23. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 22,wherein when serial execution is selected via the serial executionselector, the computer program is further configured to cause the atleast one processor to: display an interface to select an order ofexecution of the plurality of graphical element detection techniques;receive a selection of the order of the execution of the plurality ofgraphical element detection techniques; and perform the configuration ofthe activity based on the selected order of the execution of theplurality of graphical element detection techniques.
 24. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the unifiedtarget configuration pane facilitates selection of graphical elementdetection techniques executed in parallel.
 25. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the unified targetconfiguration pane comprises an initial technique selector that allowsselection of an initial graphical element detection technique.
 26. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 25, wherein the unifiedtarget configuration pane facilitates selection of graphical elementdetection techniques executed in parallel after the initial graphicalelement detection technique and a delay for the parallel execution afterthe initial graphical element detection technique is executed.
 27. Acomputing system, comprising: memory storing computer programinstructions for detecting graphical elements in a user interface (UI);and at least one processor configured to execute the computer programinstructions, wherein the computer program instructions are configuredto cause the at least one processor to: display a robotic processautomation (RPA) workflow development pane comprising a visualrepresentation of an RPA workflow and display a unified targetconfiguration pane, receive a selection of an activity in the RPAworkflow to be configured to perform graphical element detection using aunified target technique, receive modifications to the unified targettechnique for the activity, and configure the activity based on themodifications, wherein the unified target configuration pane facilitatesconfiguration of unified target properties for the RPA workflow, theunified target technique is a combined series and delayed parallelexecution unified target technique that is configured to employ aplurality of graphical element detection techniques, and the unifiedtarget configuration pane comprises an initial technique selector thatallows selection of an initial graphical element detection technique.28. The computing system of claim 27, wherein the unified targetconfiguration pane facilitates selection of graphical element detectiontechniques executed in parallel after the initial graphical elementdetection technique and a delay for the parallel execution after theinitial graphical element detection technique is executed.